


What Yet May Be

by Jade4813



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Futurefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 10:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10695375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade4813/pseuds/Jade4813
Summary: Iris unexpectedly finds herself in the future, seven years after her death at the hands of Savitar, and finds out what happens to the people she loves in her absence.





	What Yet May Be

Iris was lost in her thoughts as she stepped out of the car, but when she approached the lab, she heard the low murmur of voices and pushed her musings aside. Straightening, she pushed her shoulders back and forced a smile. “Hey, Barry,” she greeted her fiancé warmly, moving towards him to give him a kiss. “I thought I might find you here. Are you–,” before she could finish the thought, she saw a bright flash out of the corner of her eye. She felt her body fly backwards, as though blasted by an invisible force. Then there was a bright flash of light, and everything went dark.

She didn’t know how much time passed before she moaned, her eyes fluttering. Her head was throbbing, and her arm felt like lead as she lifted her hand to her forehead. It took a moment to get the strength to open her eyes and a bit longer until the throbbing in her head receded.

She sat up and cast a quick glance around the room to check on everyone else, but she was immediately taken aback by what she saw. Only one overhead light remained on, but in the dim light it provided, she didn’t see her friends anywhere. The room itself was in shambles, and though she initially assumed its state was due to an explosion, when she got to her feet and looked closer, she saw no signs of fire damage. Instead, it looked run down and abandoned; a thick layer of dust was over everything but one computer.

She put that mystery aside as she focused on finding the others. “Barry? Dad?” she called as she spun around in a circle. They were nowhere to be found. They’d been there a couple minutes ago; where could they have gone?

She called out her friends’ names one more time, her voice echoing in the empty room. “Cisco? Is anyone here?” No response. Iris leaned against the nearby desk and tried to get her bearings, to make sense of what had happened.

Could she have lost consciousness in the explosion? It was certainly possible, but she couldn’t believe that Barry or her dad would have left her like that, unconscious on the floor. Could she be having some sort of concussion-induced hallucinations? She didn’t think that sort of thing was normal, but she was hardly the leading expert on head injuries. She knew enough to know she couldn’t dare fall asleep if she did have a concussion, but that was it – and she was hardly likely to drift off to sleep any time soon.

A little at a loss what to do next, Iris eyed the one running computer. She should be able to use it to send a distress signal to Barry and the rest of the team, letting them know where she was. She approached the keyboard and hit a button to bring the system out of power saving mode, but she got an error message when she entered her password. With a slight frown, she tried again, but she got the same error message. Shaking her head softly, she tried one more time to no avail.

Iris muttered a curse. Had Cisco changed the passwords again? Sadly, he wasn’t around to ask. She gave one of the other computers a considering look. Maybe she’d get lucky and he hadn’t had a chance to update all of them yet. She tried to power one on, but when nothing happened, she crawled under the desk to verify it was plugged in, which required sorting through a giant tangle of cords first.

She was yanking on one cord to see where it led when she heard a very familiar voice. “Whoever you are, you’ve made a big mistake, coming here.”

“Barry!” she gasped, scrambling out from under the desk so fast, he almost smacked her head on the edge as she jumped to her feet. Luckily, she dodged at the last second; she didn’t need an extensive experience with concussions to know that getting another head injury when she was already (possibly) suffering from one would be a bad idea.

Her relief and elation evaporated immediately once she caught sight of him, however. This wasn’t Barry. It couldn’t be. Oh, he looked like her fiancé, in large part. He had the same body type. The same brown hair and freckles. The same curve to his lips as the man she loved to kiss. But even with Barry’s super speed, his hair didn’t grow to almost shoulder length in a matter of minutes, and there was a bleakness in his eyes that her Barry had never had, even in his darkest moments.

“Iris.” Her name carried from his lips on a whisper, but she only vaguely noticed the shock and pain in his eyes as she wracked her brain for an explanation. Either she was having some really serious hallucinations, or…or this was another shape shifter, trying to take over her fiancé’s identity. How he could have gotten so much about Barry so perfectly and yet so completely missed the mark was a mystery, but she could puzzle over that oversight later. “Oh my god, Iris, is it really you?”

He took a step towards her, and Iris scrambled back, bending quickly to pick up a rusty metal rod on the floor, leftover from who knew what. Lifting it over her head, she cried, “Stop right there! What have you done to Barry?”

The stranger stopped in his tracks, but he didn’t tear his eyes from her face. “Iris…it’s me. It’s Barry.”

She shook her head violently, wincing a moment later when the pounding in her head intensified. “No, you’re not. I was with him just a few minutes ago, so don’t think for a second that you can trick me! Tell me where he is! Right now!”

Even as she threatened him, her eyes darted to the door and she started to formulate a plan. She didn’t know anything about this stranger, whether he had any abilities other than shape shifting. Though if she had a concussion, it probably didn’t matter that much; she shouldn’t be taking him on alone when she was hardly in the best condition to do so. But if she could make it to the door, she might be able to lead him into the pipeline. Then, with any luck, she could trick him into one of the cells and lock him in until she tracked down her friends and they could get to the bottom of whatever was going on here together.

She heard a slight movement and jerked her arm, ready to act in her own defense, but when she looked at the stranger again, she saw he hadn’t moved towards her. He’d sunk to his knees, his hands open, palms up, on his legs. He still stared at her, and his eyes were wet with unshed tears. The sorrow in them hurt her heart to see, and for a second, she knew doubt. A suspicion crept into her mind, but she ruthlessly pushed it aside, not wanting to believe it was true.

“Stay – stay back,” she warned again, though her voice wavered just a little. She skirted the desk, keeping her eyes locked on his as she edged her way towards the door. When she thought it was safe, she turned and was about to run when she heard him say something behind her. The first words were too soft for her to hear, and Iris paused, uncertain, throwing another glance at him over her shoulder. His voice was low and hoarse, his head bowed, but if she listened closely, she could barely make out his words, sung in a hoarse undertone.

[i]“Can’t change what the future may hold. But, I want you in it –”[/i] At this, his voice cracked and he took a shuddering breath before he could continue, the next words coming out in a pained and broken whisper. [i]“Every hour. Every minute.”[/i]

She knew that song. It was the song Barry had written for her. The song he had sung to her the night he’d proposed. It was a song for only the two of them, and a shape shifter that didn’t know enough about the man she loved to get his haircut right couldn’t possibly know it.

“Oh, god,” she moaned as the truth finally sunk in. Her entire body went numb from the shock, and it was on wooden legs that she stumbled towards him. She paused before him and reached forward with trembling fingers, resting them lightly on the top of his head. “Barry, what happened?” She suspected she knew what he was about to say, but she still hoped she was wrong.

He stiffened, leaning into her touch for a moment before tilting his head back to look up at her. His cheeks were wet with tears. “You died, Iris. Seven years ago. You died.” With a tiny gasping sob, he wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned into her. His entire body shook as he pressed his face against her stomach and held her tight.

“Barry, I don’t understand. Where is everyone?” she asked a little while later. The two of them were standing side by side at the desk, and while he seemed desperate to keep her close, he was still too different from her Barry for her to be comfortable in his arms.

He looked around with a slight frown then offered a slight shrug. “They’re gone, Iris,” he said. He kept saying her name, actually, as though he was trying to get used to the feel of it on his tongue once more. 

Her eyes narrowed, she prompted, “What do you mean, gone?”

He wouldn’t quite meet her eyes as he explained in a stilted voice, “After you – after that night, we tried to carry on for a while, but it wasn’t any use. Your dad…it can’t be a surprise to know that he never could get over what happened to you. He tried. I think he wanted to still do what he could to help, but being here…it just reminded him of you, I guess. He just stopped coming one day. Wally didn’t take it much better. He started getting more and more reckless until one day, he – he almost died. We were able to get to him in time, but…things were never going to be what they were.”

“And Cisco? Caitlin?” she pressed.

Barry tilted his head and looked at her in mild surprise, as though shocked she didn’t know. “Caitlin? She turned into Killer Frost years ago. Cisco tried to get her back, to help her, and she almost killed him. He’d been trying so hard to keep us all together until that point, but I think that was the final straw for him. I guess that’s when he realized it was over. He went away for a while, I think to Earth 23. He’s back now, but…” He let his voice trail off, finishing his explanation another small shrug.

Iris tore her gaze away from him and started to pace back and forth. It was too much; this wasn’t what she wanted to happen after her death. This couldn’t be the future for the people she loved! “And you?” she asked weakly, not sure she wanted an answer.

Watching him out of the corner of her eye, she saw his grimace. “I died when you did.”

This stopped her in her tracks and she whirled. Stepping towards him, she framed his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. Her voice was warm but firm when she said, “Don’t say that. You know it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to give up; even if I’m gone, you know I’ll never really leave you. This isn’t who you’re supposed to be.”

She felt the slight shake of his head, saw the pain in his eyes as he murmured, “No. I was supposed to be the man who spent the rest of his life with you.”

Iris’s hands fell to her sides. Though her heart was aching, she was resolute. “This can’t be how things end. You need to send me back. I need to fix it.”

Barry looked at her, his eyes wide. After a moment, he shook his head firmly. “No.”

“No?” she repeated in disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous, I have to –”

“No!” he reiterated, his voice rising. “No, I won’t send you back! I’m not going to send you back to die!”

Iris swallowed heavily. “That isn’t your call to make,” she reminded him in a low voice.

Barry straightened, his face flushing. “Isn’t it?”

“Don’t you understand?” she tried one more time. “I have to fix this! This can’t be the way things end!”

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand! You are going to [i]die[/i] if I send you back there! Do you want to see what Savitar is going to do to you? I can show you –” He hit a button on a band around his wrist, and a hologram filled the room.

Iris gasped when she saw an image of herself at the top of the stairs, Savitar right behind her. “Barry, stop,” she breathed, trying not to watch but unable to tear her eyes away.

The hologram of the man she loved was begging Savitar to let her go, but the man in front of her. “Not if you need to see this to take this seriously, Iris,” he said in a hard voice. “You have to understand –”

She heard her hologram tell Barry she loved him, heard Barry plead with her not to say that, and she finally got the strength to wrench her gaze away. “I said [i]stop it[/i]!” she yelled, giving him a hard shove. The hologram flickered and died, and she would have been relieved if she weren’t so angry.

“Take this seriously?” she repeated, her voice tight, her whole body shaking. “[i]Take this seriously?[/i] You honestly think I’m not taking this seriously?” With each sentence, her voice rose with anger. “I [i]am[/i] taking this seriously! Are you kidding me? Do you honestly think that a day hasn’t passed since you told me I was going to die that I haven’t thought about the future? About what it means? About the fact that I can calculate the rest of my life in days? In hours?” She was yelling now, her hands forming fists at her side, as all the thoughts and fears she’d tried so hard to hide poured out. “I know what’s going to happen to me! I think about it all the time, and it isn’t fair! [i]It isn’t fair![/i]”

Iris’s voice broke, and she had to bow her head and take a few deep breaths to get control of herself before she could continue. When she did, her anger had drained away, leaving behind only sorrow for the life she would never have. She couldn’t look at her companion as she continued. “I’m not – I’m not ready to die, Barry. There’s still too much I want to do. I want to see my dad happy in love. I want to be there when Wally graduates from college. When he gets married one day. When he realizes he’s already the hero he’s tried so hard to be all along. I want to write articles that make a difference, that matter. I want to travel, to see the world. I want to win a Pulitzer.”

She took a shaky breath, pressing a hand against her heart as though to stop it from breaking. “I want to marry the man I love. I want children. I want to watch them grow up. I want to watch them discover who they want to be.” Her voice fell to a low murmur, her eyes closed tight as she pictured those children she would never be able to have. “I want to look back at our time together one day and count those moments in decades, not days and months and years. I want to grow old with you.”

In an agonized whisper, she finished, “I want to know what it feels like to grow old.”

She felt a tear trail down her cheek as she looked up at the man who was once the man she loved, and she saw the same pain echoed in his eyes. “I know I’m going to die. Believe me, I understand what going back means. But I have to do it.”

“Stay with me,” he pleaded in a broken whisper. “You don’t have to go back. Stay with me.”

“I can’t,” she protested on a low moan. When he started to protest, she grabbed his hands and held them tight, trying to provide some comfort, even as she sought some for herself. “Staying here won’t stop Savitar.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’ll be safe,” he retorted, his jaw setting in a firm line.

She shook her head. “And what will he do when he can find me? Go after you? My dad? Wally? How could I live with myself if I traded my brother’s life for my own?” When he didn’t respond, she gave his hands a quick squeeze. “You know I have to go back, and I can’t do it without your help.”

He sighed, his gaze falling to the ground. “You don’t always have to be strong for everyone else,” he said, but his voice lacked the angry bite from earlier.

Iris nodded as she tried to find a way to explain. “Yes, I do. I grieve every day for the life I wish I could have. But in a few weeks, my grief will”–she paused and had to take a steadying breath before she could finish the sentence–“will die with me. The people I love are going to be the ones who will have to keep carrying it.

“If I can’t change my future, then the least I can do is try to make it easier for the people I leave behind.”

He attempted a wry smile, but the expression looked like it hadn’t crossed his face in a long time. “Iris, I’m the first person to believe you can do anything you put your mind to, but making it easier for us to let you go? I’m sorry, but not even you can do that.”

She winced, her gaze falling to their hands. “I have to try.” Maybe she wouldn’t live long enough to change the world like she wanted, but if she could find a way to prevent this future, to stop the people she loved from losing hope, to help Barry remember to be the hero she knew him to be…maybe that would be enough.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but after a moment, he sighed and nodded his head. “Wait, before you go…take this.” He pulled the band off his wrist and held it out to her. Remembering the truth it held, she flinched and drew away. “It will help you stop Savitar.”

She didn’t take it. She didn’t want to see her death. “Who is he?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. Everything you need to know is on here. Give it to Cisco; he’ll figure it out.”

Swallowing heavily, she took it and wrapped it around her wrist with trembling fingers. “How many times have you watched it?” she asked softly as she fastened it. She didn’t need to elaborate.

He didn’t answer at first, but when he did, his voice was soft. “I watch it every day.”

“Oh, Barry,” she breathed, cupping his face in her hands and drawing him down to press a kiss on his forehead. “Whatever happens next, I don’t want you to remember me like that. Remember this moment, as I am now. I will never leave you, and I will never stop loving you. Remember that.”

Barry wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her into his arms. “Hold on tight,” he told her; then he started to run. The world faded away as he ran into the speed force. She saw images flash by, of things that were and could be.

When they faded and Barry came to a halt, she saw they were in the middle of S.T.A.R. Labs, but they weren’t alone. Cisco’s jaw was agape as he stared, and Barry looked like he’d been about to race forward to save her from this new threat, but the fact that it wore his own face had momentarily taken him by surprise. Her dad had his hand on the gun in his holster, but he looked uncertain about whether he should pull it.

“Well,” Cisco said after a long pause. “That’s unexpected.”

The Barry from the future set her on her feet and took a step back, staring gravely at his younger self as he did so. Then he looked back at Iris one last time and cupped her cheek in his palm. “I could never forget you,” he vowed in a soft murmur. “Not one single moment.” With one more glance at his younger self, he stepped back into the speedforce and was gone.


End file.
